French Open 2017: Yuki Bhambri, Ramkumar Ramanathan knocked out in first round of qualifying

Paris: Yuki Bhambri went down fighting while Ramkumar Ramanathan suffered a tame defeat as the two Indians bowed out of the French Open Qualifiers on Monday. Up against Canada’s 25th seed and world number 132 Peter Polansky, Bhambri lost the first round match 6-7(7), 6-7(5). [caption id=“attachment_3470618” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Yuki Bhambri. PTI [/caption] Ramanathan lost to Argentina’s world number 114 and 13th seed Guido Pella 2-6 1-6 in a lop-sided first round encounter on court number 18. In a close opening set, Bhambri and Polansky broke each other once to be on an even keel and eventually the set was decided by a tie-breaker in which the Canadian managed to prevail. In the second set, Bhambri had the opportunity to draw first blood and he converted the break chance in the fifth game to go up 3-2. Polansky though broke back in the eighth game and held his own to grab a 5-4 lead. Bhambri was now serving to stay in the match and held nerves to make it 5-5. The second set too went down to the wire but it was the Canadian who again prevailed. Bhambri saved three match points but Polansky closed the match on the fourth. The defeat of both Bhambri and Ramanathan means that yet again, no Indian will compete in the singles main draw of a Grand Slam event.